Anđela Knežević II3, Filološka gimnazija Beograd

Japan is an island country in East Asia.

Japanese archipelago consists of many islands but the four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku.

Shintoism(,,way of the gods”) is Japan’s oldest religion.

This story is described in Kojiki,which is the first book written in Japan.

This story describes the birth of heavenly and earthly world, the birth of the first gods and the birth of the Japanese archipelago.

At the beginning the universe was sunk in silence.

The first deities which came into existence are collectively called Kotoamatsukami.

The first two generations are called hitorigami, , while the five that followed came into being as male/female pairs of kami.The most important couple are Izanagi and Izanami.

After their birth Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the primeval ocean with a jeweled spear.

They made a island and descended there.

They got married.Their child was

deformed because they made a mistake.

They got married again, Izanami soon gave a birth to eight children, who became the islands of Japan.

When Izanami died, Izanagi decided to go there and bring his beloved back from the land of death.When he came,she warned him not to look at her.However,he saw her and he was horrified to see that Izanami was a rotting corpse.Angry that Izanagi had not respected her wishes, Izanami sent hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce warriors to chase him.Izanagi felt unclean because of his contact with the dead, and he took a bath to purify himself.Then when he washed his left eye the sun goddess Amaterasu appeared,from his right Tsuki-yomi appeared and Susanoo appeared from his nose.…

Amaterasu is the main Japanese godness.According to legend, she is the first ancestor of the imperial family of Japan.

She was in a fight with her brother Susanoo.

The legend says that Amaterasu was furious at Susanoo,she went into a cave and locked the entrance. So the sun disappeared .Then other gods tried to lure her out the cave.

It is a shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu.

It is sacred place in Japan.

Ise shrine is reconstucted every 20 years.

Tsukuyomi is the moon god.Amaterasu was his wife but he angered her

when he killed the food godness .After that she refused to ever look at him.And then she moved to another part of the sky. This is the reason that day and night are never together.

Susanoo is a god of the sea and storms.He is also considered to be ruler of Yomi.Susanoo envied his sister's power over the sun and his brother's power over the moon.After Amaterasu left the cave, Susanoo was punished by being banished from Heaven. Susanoô went to live in Izumo in western Japan, where he had various adventures and began to use his powers for good.

•Jorogumo is a type of Yokai.•According to some stories, a Jorogumo is a spider that can change its appearance into seductive woman.•When it turns 400 years, it gains magical powers.

The beautiful woman would entice a man into a quiet shack and she would play a Biwa.While the victim is distracted by the sound of the instrument, she would bind him in spider silk threads in order to devour the unsuspecting person as her next meal.

•It is large fire-breathing chicken monster.•The fire is a cold fire, a glow, and it does not burn.

They really exist. Heikegani Crabs are a species of arthropod native to Japan. Originally, Japanese myth states that these crabs bore the faces of Heike samurai that died in the battle of Dan-no-ura, and indeed, the bodies of these crabs do in fact resemble human faces..

Amazake-babaa is an old woman yokai.She comes to the doors of houses at late night asking for sweet sake in a child like voice, but if anyone answers they fall ill. She was also known as the godness of chickenpox.

A tree spirit that grows in areas where mass amounts of human blood were spilled on the ground such as battle fields or execution sites. They sucked up so much of this blood that they turned into demons. These trees, having sucked up human's blood to born, will bleed off blood when they're cut.

Sometimes on rainy evenings, this innocuous weather spirit can be seen running about and splashing playfully in the puddles. It appears as a strange child, carrying a paper lantern and wearing a peculiar hat fashioned from the husk of an old umbrella.

In Japanese mythology Onamazu is a giant catfish who causes an earthquakes. It lives in the mud under the islands of Japan. Namazu is so engrained in Japanese culture he is pictured on many of the country’s earthquake-warning devices. Namazu remains a delicate topic in Japan — a Pokemon episode featuring a similar catfish monster,was banned when it was scheduled too soon after several earthquakes.

The Makura-gaeshi is a trickster spirit famous for… moving pillows while people sleep. Some sources say they also sprinkle sand in the eyes and steal souls, but, really, what they’re known for is moving pillows.

A kawauso is a river otter with the supernatural ability to become human. In most stories the kawauso are depicted as dressing as young, poor children or women to attract people, to only then kill and eat them.

•The Kasa-obake is a type of Tsukumogami – an object that spontaneously comes to life after existing for 100 years. •It is an animated parasol.